Along For the Crazy Ride
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 898a: Rachel plus a project can be a lot to handle, but Sam has no problem with any of it.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: The Long Aloha, chapter 2._

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><p><strong>"Along For The Crazy Ride"<br>Sam/Rachel, Nell (OC)  
>following 'Two Less Tortured Hearts' <strong>

It was not hard to tell her apart from her two personas. That was sort of how he saw it. There was the Rachel who was his girlfriend, the girl he loved, the girl who took such loving care of his daughter. And then there was… the other one, the other side. Maybe if he didn't know her so much now he would call it 'crazy,' but he chose to qualify it as 'spirited,' or 'inspired.' This would be the Rachel with a project in mind, usually related to something that had to do with Glee Club. Far be it for him to question her in any way, the way he saw it this was just part of who she was, and he was in for all of her.

This time around though, it wasn't about Glee Club, or at least not directly. When Mr. Schuester had invited them to participate in the debate , there hadn't been too much of a showing for volunteers until Rachel's hand had shot out and she had declared it would be her honor and that she was always ready to share her opinion. Then when Schuester had asked if there was anybody else, he'd seen her glance back and he knew she was expecting him to do it. He wasn't really sure what to anticipate about it all, but he figured it couldn't hurt. So he volunteered, too. They would be a team, that was one thing to smile about.

The next few days had found them both hard at work. Rachel was going full speed ahead, while Sam just did his best to keep up with her. He discovered that, once the research was done, the whole thing almost became like a stage production for her. She wanted to see where they would be doing their debate, what the lighting was like, and had changed her mind on their clothes – she'd picked for both – about five times now, citing image problems. However this thing turned out, he was feeling pretty confident that they would win. If anything, their opponents might yield so she would leave them alone.

The night before the debate, he had invited her over to his house for dinner. She figured it was for a final rehearsal, and so she presented herself at the door lugging their materials. He took them from her hands, put them aside, and led her toward the dining room.

"So we're practicing after dinner? That's good, hungry minds will lose focus," she told him.

"No," he shook his head. "We're not practicing," he told her, and she paused.

"We're not?" she looked concerned.

"We're ready for this, Rachel," he smiled at her. Getting some time off is the one thing you didn't put in your plans," he pointed out. "If you're too stressed, this won't work out." She breathed.

"Right. No, you're right," she admitted. "Okay, so dinner…"

After they had eaten, Sam's mother had taken 'Nell duty,' leaving Sam and Rachel to figure what they wanted to do. Sam had suggested going out for ice cream, and she had agreed.

"Now that we've stopped working on the debate, it's like… I'm so tired," she admitted, with a half smirk as they walked.

"Well you've been working hard."

"We both have," she corrected. "You've been amazing," she praised him.

"Not as much as you," he smiled.

"No, but you have!" she insisted. "Let's face it, I'm not the easiest person to be around at a time like this," she shook her head.

"I don't mind," he assured her.

"You don't?" she asked, almost surprised. "Even I know I'm a handful."

"I don't mind," he repeated. "When I say I love you, I don't say 'I love just this one part of you,' do I?"

"No, you don't," she smiled, maybe even blushed.

"So what do you have to worry about?" he smiled back, and she stretched up to kiss him.

"Nothing."

They had gone and gotten their ice cream, which was eaten on the walk back to his place. When they got there, it was just about time for Nell to go to sleep, so they had gone and Rachel had resumed lullaby duty until the small blonde had fallen asleep. Afterward they had gone to just sit and watch television for a while, and as they waited out one commercial break, he looked over to her.

"Do I have a thing?" he started asking.

"A… a thing?" she frowned, confused.

"I mean like with you… You were worried that I'd get turned off by your…"

"… debate insanity," she assigned the term herself, smirking.

"Sure, that," he nodded, smiling back. "So do I have something like that?"

"No, you're perfect," she shook her head defiantly, making him laugh.

"Come on," he tilted his head.

"What, I'm biased, okay?" she shrugged. "And so are you," she pointed a finger at him.

"True…" He paused. "It's the geek thing, isn't it?"

"What? No," she shook her head. "I like the geek thing."

"Okay, fine," he bowed out and they resettled toward the television. She leaned to his shoulder, and he put his arm around her. After a moment, he looked down to her. "You're thinking about it now, aren't you, trying to find one?"

"Stop, now," she told him, not looking up. He kissed the top of her head, and she held closer.

The next day it had been time for their debate, and Sam was happy to see their night off had seemed to help Rachel in refocusing her thoughts. She was still a ball of nerves throughout the day until it was time to take the stage, reviewing her notes, but at the same time he could see a certain calm. He never had doubts that they'd win, and now he had even less.

He had expected a much bigger reaction at their victory, but she was surprisingly kept together and humble, congratulating their opponents. She waited until it was just them before leaping. And he was there to catch her.

"We had them, we nailed it!" she told him, massive smile on her face.

"We did," he smiled back.

"Maybe we should do this again. How do you feel about the debate team?"

"No… No, no," he shook his head, hugging her with a chuckle at hearing her muted little responses of 'no? no?' "We'll retire undefeated."

THE END

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><p><strong>PLEASE READ: <strong>This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!  
>As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.<br>If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,  
>please send them my way, <em>preferably in a private message<em>,  
>but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.<br>I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>**always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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